Sunday, September 17, 2006

GIANT GEMS on the INTERNETS

+JASON SHIGA - Our buddy, and an accomplished, amazing comic book creator. Shiga does a variety of different types of comics, but will first rock your socks with his non-linear mindbender books. Hard to describe in words, these comics (include 'Meanwhile') are a semi-choose your own adventure that range from a you-are-the-hunted thriller to a recursive, Primer-meets-Wrinkle in Time science mystery. We definitely encourage you to buy books from him-- not sure which ones he has available right this instant, but we bought Meanwhile at Alternative Press Expo this spring and are still reading and re-reading it.

Upon a little further internet digging I see, HOLY CRAP, he won an Eisner and was written up in Time magazine!!

+MONSTER BRAINS - We found out about this blog through a thread on tcj.com's message board. The posts span from Lovecraftian horror tropes to Tadami Yamada's surrealist graphics to Ray Harryhausen paintings to Ludovic Debeurme's comics. There's literally hours and hours of good stuff in the links and galleries here. WE HIGHLY RECOMMEND - ENJOY!!

+FROZEN IN HELL by Derek Yu - Comics are just one of the awesome projects that our buddy Derek works on, and he keeps amazing us with each new thing he tries his hand at. (For his latest, please check out the first description and screenshots for his gorgeous new game, Aquaria). We could type pages and pages about this dude, but for today, check out his irregularly posted gag comic strip "Frozen in Hell". There's about a dozen and read like the weird stepchild of Perry Bible Fellowship and Heartbroken Angels. SWEET!

+THE STIFF by Jason Thompson - The Stiff is a long running webcomic written and illustrated by our other friend Jason. It'd be unfair to try to give a glib description of the epic, serialized story that he's telling, but in this interview, he explains it as "a cross between 'Video Girl Ai' and Charles Burns' 'Black Hole"... mixed with influences from Shojo manga and HP Lovecraft!

Jason has been a longtime editor for Viz (he was the editor behind Same Hat fan staples like Uzumaki and Gyo) and his current projects include editing editing Umezu's The Drifting Classroom and working on an ambitious manga book. We'll be posting lots on this book once it hits shelves). The Stiff is on hiatus while Jason works on his book, and now is a great time to get caught up on this hilarious and satisfying comic :)